Hehe…despite writing earlier on that I wasn’t going to play the WWdN, I did. I was still awake and felt like it, so why not?The tourney basically had everything. Joy and pain – the ultimate pain I might add, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I started the tourney out on a good note. The first big hand I played for all the marbles was 66 vs AK against Hoy…my sixes held up and I was up and running. The next big one was with 1010 against AQ…my opponent raised preflop…I reraised in position…he call…flop came 8-high with a pair, so I was positive I was ahead…he called nontheless, but luckily my hand held up. So I was sitting pretty and the rest of the first hour is a blurr…although there were two memorable occurances…I busted Wil…he was crippled by Mungo in a prior hand (see below…coolered KK vs AA) and he had to push with 250…someone behind him reraised…I put in the third race and we saw the flop headsup…my AK against his K2…my hand held up. The second memorable moment was a royal flush…

Within the next hour I witnessed all the joy and pain again…I folded hand after hand, picked up some pots with garbage…but mostly watched as cooler after cooler happened…KK vs AA again…QQ vs JJ…etc…it was carnage…then bubble time approached prior to the second break and I didn’t catch a hand…not a single one…I folded and folded and folded…we head into the second break and we’re still on the bubble…

The tourney continues after the break and the blinds are at 300/600 now…not a good thing if you’re looking at the stacks. I decide to make a move with the next good hand, if any. I get dealt AQ in the second hand after the break and make it 1800…one caller…hmm…not what I wanted…flop 776…hmmm…not really good…I put him on a pair here…I check…he pushes…oh well…there goes 1800….he shows 88…good fold. I’m down to slightly under 3k now and the blinds are about to hit me….74o in the BB…nice…fold…63o in the SB…hmm…nice…fold…

Oh well…so I’m sitting there with 14xx and I’m cursing my bad luck…then I look down at A10o…good enough to push…BB decides that 8xx more isn’t worth laying down A2o…oh well…2 on the flop…no ten for me on the turn…as it’s an Ace…river the case Ace…nice…so I’m the bubble boy with three aces…the same player that won the 88 vs AQ hand a few hands back raped me with Ace deucey…god damn it!!!

So…am I mad? Yes and no. I’m mad that I got unlucky on the bubble. Lost a flip and then got kicked in the junk by a dominated trash-hand …oh well…that’s the way it goes. The reason I said “..and no” is that I’m satisfied with my play, I made sound decisions, went in with the best and got unlucky…there are worse things than that…it still stinks though. At least the player that busted me, a fellow german whom I’ve never seen in the WWdN before, went on to finish 5th, so my chips were put to good use…I still would have enjoy it more to use them myself though…damn, poker stinks sometimes… 😉

Summary: Ultimate joy – winning some flips early on, playing good poker, earning name rights to the next WWdN (see above), seeing a royal flush again,…

Ultimate pain – getting sucked out on, on the bubble…